Tattoos can be a lot of things: An unforgettable memory from a fun night, a cool body art, a formalized affiliation with friends or a gang, memories from the past... But what about a source of healing?

The intersection of trauma and tattoos can produce something that can help people overcome their pain.

We often hear stories of sailors, people in the Navy, and incarcerated people getting tattoos as identification marks, but now they have revived a new culture that can commemorate, and contribute to emotional and physical healing.

Modern tattoo culture allows people to express themselves, commemorate loss, and even try to create another version of themselves. But for some people, it can be more than that.

People with tummy tucks sometimes lose their belly buttons in the process and some people lose their toenails to accidents or never had one in the first place. Breast cancer survivors who go through mastectomies followed by breast replacement surgeries, leaving a question about what to do about a missing areola. In all of these cases—and many others—the right tattoo artists can help.

For generations, tattoos were the sketchy domain of sketchy people and then they became a space for alternative culture self-expression, but they seem to increasingly be focused on somehow restoring our bodies, hearts and minds.

Studio Sashiko located in Langley, Canada, has developed a reputation for creating 3D toenails, toe creases, belly buttons, and areolas for people who have battled cancer, explains Alexis Gonzalez, manager of Studio Le Papillon, which is affiliated with it.

Gonzalez said that tattoos aren’t just ink on your skin but a way to restore something you lost or don’t have, and it’s an emotional experience after the challenges you’ve faced like battling cancer.

“Tattoos are the final step when you're done with that process. And it really [is] just a moment of fulfillment and just like being done with it.”

Loss and restoration

Fighting cancer takes a lot out of just about everyone, and it can continue to undermine them by stealing simple experiences and joys. That can be related to misguided shame over things the cancer took away.

Gonzalez recounted the reaction of one breast cancer survivor who had been uncomfortable wearing a swimsuit after her restorative tattooing. “‘Oh, wow, cute, I have nipples now. I want to go to a beach,’” Gonzalez recalls.

The restoration was, in many ways, about rebuilding confidence and feeling complete again.

Clinical psychologist Anahid Assatourian based in Los Angeles, explained how tattoos can help to cope and regain a sense of self after battling a disease like cancer. Assatourian said that having all of the features of breasts is a major indication of being a woman, and not having them can make someone feel unfulfilled. But getting areolas tattooed can bring back that sense of womanhood they lost.

Assatourian said that, “They are using that tattoo to feel a sense of femininity.”

Gonzalez knows that restoration after loss can come in other ways. While in high school, a friend of Gonzalez died in a car accident.

“That was just so jarring to me and our friends, and it just was a blunt reminder of, like, you could die tomorrow [and] life is so short, nothing is promised, so just do it.”

Gonzalez had long contemplated getting a tattoo, but had been afraid to commit. In response to the loss, Gonzalez went through with it and had a tattoo of a butterfly — an insect associated with beauty and transformation — etched onto her throat.

Like self-harm scars.

Milla Sophia Press, the owner of the GirlxfriendLA tattoo shop in Los Angeles, said that tattooing can be healing for some people who have previously taken to cutting their own skin as an unhealthy outlet when struggling with their mental health, including after suicide attempts.

“Getting scars covered can also kind of help reinvent themselves from some sort of loss that they felt or trauma they felt,” Press said.

Assatourian, who has treated people with personality disorders and who suffer from addiction, said that tattoos can also play a positive role in coping with traumatic sexual abuse, including by helping them to remember who they are beyond the abuse they experienced.

Assatourian explained how for so long people who have been sexually abused haven't had control over their bodies and once they start getting tattoos, they nurture this feeling that no one can touch them or hurt them.

“The first thing that they feel is a sense of empowerment [and] this sense of empowerment gives them power to have control over their body.”

Rebellion and freedom

Tattoo artist Daniel Snoeks from Australia has numerous tattoos all over his body like snakes, interwoven floral patterns, and colorful images. He grew up feeling stifled in a strict and conservative Christian family and perhaps experienced identity loss, and as a young teenager, he wanted to prove the world wrong about who he should be. So he started covering his body with ink.

“Tattooing is kind of like skateboarding because it’s a subculture you can’t learn in school… and there's no rules to it — something that you need to learn on your own.”

He also noted that tattooing is a design process, like architecture, since there is a construction of design involved, and he emphasized that getting tattoos is like investing in art you can keep with you forever.

His tattoos are like from various parts of paintings that have different themes, yet when you see them all together they all connect perfectly.

He mentioned how when he first met his girlfriend's mother, he was surprised that she didn’t immediately direct her attention towards his tattoos, and did not make any comments about them. That made him feel at ease because he didn’t feel judged and was glad that someone saw some of him as a person, rather than just his appearance.